Charity Stanley is a Latin teacher at the high school in the picture-perfect New England seaside town where she has lived all her life. A beloved character, she has inspired hundreds of students to continue their education at some of the nationA[a–a[s finest colleges. A bureaucratic decision brings her into close contact with another well-known teacher who is suspected of sexual impropriety with his students. Charity refuses to consider the possibility that the rumors could be true, but doubts creep in and she takes steps that lead to a collision of these two willful personalities. Charity goes to her principal only to learn that the suspicions go back many years and that he may well have failed the legally mandated requirement of reporting such suspicions. Tension builds until Charity takes the decisive action that explodes into the extraordinary climax.